FIVE

~CLAIR~

The comforting warmth was something I wanted to cherish while I was still sleeping. I moaned in satisfaction at the comforting heat but then my mind drifted to Sam's audition.

I then open my eyes to be met with a chest. A well sculpted, hard and sexy chest with some tattoos. I bit my lip as my eyes moved upwards to see a beautiful and handsome face.

My husband was sleeping beside me!

I couldn't help but admire how cute he looks when he's sleeping. There wasn't his signature frown on his face instead he looked peaceful. I wish his face could be as calm as this when he's awake not always frowning.

"You know staring is rude right?", his husky Italian voice says as he opens his eyes. His beautiful gray eyes made me blush in embarrassment.

What if he heard me moan?

I'm totally screwed.

"Sorry", I mumble embarrassed. "Morning", he says as he sits up. I sit up and then realized our position. Our legs were tangled together and my dress was rolled up that my bare thighs were on display.

My face was burning with embarrassment as I pulled my dress down. I hear him chuckle and my head snap to him. He was looking at me with an amused expression.

"How did we...you know?", I ask him. "After the gala, you were pretty tired so I carried you to your room. Then you told me to stay with you and I was already too tired to protest so I complied", he explains and an 'o' left my mouth.

"What time is it?", I ask. "Six on the dot", he answers and I nod. This is the first time I'm having a civilized conversation with him. And it's in my bed!

I was meant to meet Sam in her house by seven thirty. Yawning softly, I stand up from my bed and attempt to reach the zip of my dress but I couldn't.

I turn around embarrassed. Matteo was still sitting down on the bed with his phone in hand. "Matteo, please can you help me with m-my z-zip?", I ask him with my face burning in embarrassment. Oh God! Why did I stutter at the end of my sentence?

He nods and stands up. I bit my lower lip when his muscles flexed as he walked towards me. His fingers lightly brushed my back causing shivers down my body as he zipped my dress down.

"I'm done", he clears his throat. "Thank you", I say and turn around. I quickly make my way to the bathroom and sigh as I close the door. I don't know how he has this effect on me.

After my bath, I walked into my room. Thankfully, he wasn't there so I changed into a pair of dark high waist jeans and a red long sleeved shoulder drop crop top. I applied lip gloss and mascara and slipped into my red addidas converse.

I walked down the stairs to see Martha preparing to leave. "Good morning Martha", I greet her. "Good morning my dear, how was your night?", she greets. I blush and she smirked. "You'll give me all the details when I get back from shopping", she says and I nod.

"Bye", I hug her and she hugs me back. I make my way into the kitchen. I see Matteo at the island eating and typing away on his laptop.

I quietly walked over to the counter and poured in some hot water from the kettle into a mug. I poured in a packet of lemon tea and two sugar cubes.

"Are you on a diet?", he asks as I walk over to the island and sit down with my mug. "No", I say taking a sip of my tea. "Then why not breakfast?", he asks. "I'm not hungry", I say shortly and he shrugs slightly.

I didn't finish my tea when my phone beeped and it displayed a message from Sam.

Baby girl, I'm at our spot.

I smile and text her back

I'll be right there.

Then she texted again,

Ask your hubby if I could come over.

I bite my lip texting her back.

I'll try....

"I advise you to not bite your lip when you're in front of me", I hear him say lowly. I thought his normal baritone was hot. But his Italian accent being an octave lower is sexy.

I mentally face palmed myself when I bit my lip again. It's not my fault. I do it when I'm thinking or anxious.

"Sorry", I mumble as I fiddle with my fingers. "I assume you want to ask a question", he says. My eyes widen, "How would you know?". He smirks, "You're like an open book, Clair. So fire away".

My cheeks turn red as I drop my gaze to my fingers and take a deep breath.

"Can I be allowed to bring my friend over?", I ask him. "You're not a ten year old Clair, you're allowed to do anything you want", he says and I raise my head.

I was about to say something but he beat me to it. "I know what I told you earlier last week. I'm sorry for that. You don't need my permission to do anything", he says.

My eyes lock with his beautiful gray ones and my body shivered. I averted my gaze and stood up. I walked to the dishwasher and rinsed my cup. A maid had already cleared his table when I turned around.

I grab my bag and walk over to him. "Matteo?", I say quietly. He looks up from his phone. His face was a few inches from me.

Suck it up Clair!

I stand on my tippy toes and kiss him on his cheek. "Thank you", I mutter and quickly walk out of the house before he could react.

I didn't look back until I walked out of the gates. My heart was beating rapidly and my face was hot red. I quickly called a taxi.

~~

"Clair!", Sam squeals running towards me. She wasn't joking when she said she'd wear that outfit. She wore the ripped jeans but it had some designs on it. The black crop top had a crown on the 'I HATE BITCHES'. "What did you do?", I ask her with a raised brow.

"I added some designs. Look at my DIY converse!", she squeals. I see her black Nike that had a red rose at the back of each shoe with the words 'I HATE BITCHES' written under.

"Tell me you spent all night doing this", I say. "Yup", she says popping the 'p'. I roll my eyes and follow her towards her car.

"Have you had breakfast?", she asks. "Does lemon tea count?", I ask her. She shakes her head mutter no. "I'll order pizza when we get there", she says. "Okay", I say.

We get to the large building and my mouth opens in awe. It's grown more beautiful than I remembered last year. "Let's go in!", she grabs my hand and drags me into the building.

"Samantha!", we turn our heads to see Tiffany. "Hey Tiff!", both of us walk towards her. Tiffany was Sam's modeling partner before she resigned.

"I hope you're coming back. I need you! I don't want to be paired with that whore", Tiff points at Alexia. I almost immediately burst out laughing. "That's Alexia", I say and she immediately cursed her name.

"Hey Clair, I heard you're married", she says and I nod showing her my wedding ring. "Wow, this must be expensive. Well, you're a Rossi", she says and we all laugh.

She leads us to where the other ladies are. I sit beside Sam who sits beside Alexia, unfortunately. She didn't notice until Sam huffed at something Mark said.

Mark shot her an amused look while she winked at him. In case you didn't know, Mark is her older brother's best friend.

He began walking towards us. Alexia, thinking he was coming for her began to adjust her hair and began twirling it seductively.

I then saw the look on Sam's face. It was like saying 'he isn't coming for you bitch'. I giggled and then Mark was in front of us.

"Hey ladies", he smiles. I let out a little laugh when Alexia's face fell. "Hey momma's boy", I say teasingly. He pouts and I giggle. "I'm gonna tell Aiden you're bulling me", he whines and I pinch his cheeks. "You're so adorable", I coo and he laughs.

"Sammy, long time, no see", he says and Sam waves him off before pulling him in hug. "Because I left doesn't mean you had to abandon me", she huffs and Mark ruffles her hair.

"You're ruining my hair do", she shrieks and he laughs.

"I have a job to do, I'll see you guys later", he says and gives us a peck each before leaving.

"First, it was that guy in the parking lot and now a guy for Channels. What's more slut?", Alexia sneers.

"Yo Barbie face!", Sam snarls. "You don't talk to her like that especially when I'm here. The name's Samantha Millers I can't wait to see your face after this audition", she says angrily and Alexia's face fell as she realized who Sam was.

As if on cue, the organizers walked in.

"Let's begin, shall we?", they clapped.

~~

"I did it! I won!", Sam ran in screaming and squealing like a love struck teenager who just got asked on a date. "Wow Sam, that's great!", I open my arms as she jumped on me. She hugged me like she was squeezing an orange.

"Okay I think you should leave her now. She's turning blue", Mark peels her off me. "I got it Mark, I actually got it!", she squeals and hugs him.

I smile and then it dropped just as Alexia walked through the doors. She stormed towards me and pointed a finger towards me. "It's because of you!", she snarled.

"What did I do?", I ask her confused.

She laughs and glares at me. "You took everything from me. You took Matteo, you took my reputation and now you're taking my job!", she accuses angrily.

"I-I don't understand", I say confused. "They want you to model, you bitch!", she screams at me and my eyes widen.

"I didn't mean to-", I didn't even complete my sentence when I heard a loud sound and a painful and stinging sensation on my cheeks.

Nobody had slapped me since that incident that happened eight years ago.

That slap brought back so many memories that I thought I buried down deep.

"Did you just slap her!?", I hear Sam scream. "You fucking slapped her!", she screamed and pushed her to the ground. "You do not mess with Clair!", Sam screamed and was about to land a punch when Mark pulled her back.

"Let me go!", Sam yells as she struggles against him. She pushed out of his grip and punched Alexia square in the face and I heard something crack.

"You broke my fucking nose!", Alexia screams. "You deserve much slut!", Sam spits and faces me with a sad expression.

Tears already streaming down my cheeks as I looked at the ground, I'm very sure my cheeks were red. "I'll take care of her. Bye". She tells Mark and he nods.

She grabs my hand and leads me out of the building. She helps me in the car and gets in the driver's seat.

She turns to me and runs a hand through her white hair. "Clair, I'm sorry she did that to you. Please calm down", she says. She sighs, "Where do you want to go?". "Home", I say as a sob escaped my mouth. "Please don't cry", she begs me but I managed to keep my mouth closed as she drove me home.

By the time we reached my house, my breathing became rapid and it was somehow hard to breathe. "Clair! Breathe!", she says panicking but it was distant to my hearing.

"Shit!", she curses and hops out of the car running to my side. "Clair, please talk to me!", she begs. "House", is all I can say. Now I can't breathe.

Tears began to fall down my cheeks as I gasp for air. "Asthma?", she cries out. "Martha", I cry as I try to breathe.

"I'll get help", she says and runs into the house.

Sobs escape my mouth as I fail every attempt to breathe. "Ah!", I cry as I try to breathe. "Clair?", I hear someone all my name.

Then I feel a warm hand on my cheek wiping away my tears. "It's okay baby", he coos. A sob escape my lips as I choke on air.

"Should we take her to the hospital?", Sam asks with panic clear in her voice. "No", he mumbles and crouches down to my leg.

"Clair, wrap your legs around my waist so I can carry you", he says softly and I nod. He lifts me by my arms and I wrap my legs around his waist burying my face in his chest. "It h-hurts", I sob into chest. "Shh, baby it's okay", he coos and carries me inside with Sam trailing along.

He drops me on a cold counter top and I realize we're in the kitchen. He turns to Sam, "There's a cloth in that cupboard, please bring it". She nods and does as he says. He dips the cloth under the tap making it wet.

"Clair, I need to remove your top", he says and I nod. A painful gasp escaped my mouth as my airway tightened. "It's okay", he whispers and helps me remove my top.

"Okay, Clair try to breathe", he tells me. I try to inhale but I can't get any air in my lungs. "You're making progress, try again baby", he encourages. I do as he says and he dabs my chest with the wet cloth.

"Do it again", he says and I obey. He drops the cloth in the sink and holds my waist drawing small circles at my back. "Breathe, Clair please just breathe", he begs me and I try to inhale again.

"It h-hurts s-so m-much", I whimper and he strokes my cheeks. "Just do it for me baby", he whispers and I nod. I try again and I felt myself inhale little air.

"Good girl, keep breathing", he says and I continue inhaling and exhaling until I could breathe normally. "You did it", he says and I nod. My energy was lost and I fell forward. He wrapped me securely in his arms.

"Are you okay!?", Sam asks panicking. "She's alright. I can hear her breathing", he says and she nods. My eyes were heavy and I was so tired.

"Go to sleep Clair", he whispers in my ear and I nod. "Thank you Matteo", I say before I was out like light.